All Blacks: Jason Ryan pinpoints key areas of improvement needed on year-end tour

All Blacks forwards coach Jason Ryan has highlighted the key facets of play which they have to improve on if they want to make their tour to Japan and Europe a success.

The men in black face a gruelling five-week tour which kicks off against the Brave Blossoms at the end of this month before they take on England, Ireland, France and Italy on successive weekends in November.

After winning the Rugby Championship for four successive years between 2020 and 2023, the All Blacks finished second behind the Springboks in that tournament this year and Ryan admitted that there are some crucial areas which needs improvement if they want to attain the desired results on their upcoming tour.

‘A couple of parts to answer that question’

“Yeah, there’s probably a couple of parts to answer that question, but I think when our ball carry and clean, the breakdown has got momentum and we’re accelerating into contact, that often means that the boys are clear, that they’re not thinking about too much and clearly the big rocks have set pace,” he told the Aotearoa Rugby Pod.

“We need to be winning top quality ball for our backs to score some tries. I often talk about the highlighter pen to the boys, just pick your two things for the week, it’s why you had that at school.

“So you don’t need to fill your whole book up, but at the end of the week, close it so you’re ready.

“I think that we’ve worked that out along the way as well, but when we’ve got our forwards accelerating on the ball and our backs scoring nice tries in the corner, well, that’s good, but sometimes winning Test matches, it’s all different.

“Can’t say I’ve ever been too worried about whether or not it’s one point or 30, just one in the Test and you celebrate that.”

All Blacks coach highlights Sam Cane’s importance to New Zealand cause

Much has been said about the tour’s three big Tests against the Red Rose, the men from the Emerald Isle and Les Bleus, and while Ryan admitted that he is excited by the prospect of facing those sides, that’s been a familiar feeling for the All Blacks in 2024.

“I think the whole year has been (exciting), to be honest, like right from when that calendar came out and you knew we had a couple of Tests against South Africa in South Africa, world champions, how good,” he said.

‘Two ways you can look at it’

“After a World Cup year, there’s two ways you can look at it. You can go ‘Oh, it’s a lot of Tests’. Or you go ‘This is exactly what we need’.

“And I believe the calendar is that. And it finds out where your pressure points are pretty quickly. And I think we’ve grown a bit in that space, definitely.

“And I think when you look at heading north, Japan, she’s going to be reasonably hot. So there’ll be a lot of movement in the game. They play fast and then we head straight to England and then a short turn around, Ireland and France.

“So that’ll give us different challenges that we’ll need to adapt (to) pretty quickly and find out where our game’s at, which we’re growing all the time. I think we’ve found (out) a lot about ourselves in that South Africa series. And also the finishing part of the games, which we’ve put a lot of work into through the Bledisloe.

“So it is exciting and heading to Europe is awesome as an All Black team, you know, the crowds and the atmosphere. It’s pretty special to be a part of. So we’re looking forward to it.”

READ MORE: Hoskins Sotutu receives blunt message about European tour ‘expectation’ after All Blacks snub